Honey is falsified more often than other products. Consumers are tired of revealing the degree of its naturalness, resorting to simple tests at home. Often there is such a picture: for 2-3 months, the fresh liquid honey bought at the store is sugared. Why does this happen and how does crystallization affect its quality? Beekeepers call this process “cage” and consider it quite natural. However, not all varieties "sit down" over time, and this leads buyers to alarming thoughts.
Should real honey be sugared?
With prolonged storage, bee
honey crystallizes, this eventually happens even in sealed honeycombs located in the hive.
What is the reason for the fact that under the same storage conditions, one variety remains liquid for years, and the other honey is sugared? Why is the nature of crystallization of its different species different? This is due to the ratio of the main components: glucose, water and fructose in each particular variety.
Fructose is highly soluble in water, and does not form crystals. This means that honey with a high fructose content (sage, heather, chestnut) may not crystallize for a long time. The acacia product is able to remain liquid for more than two years.
Glucose has the least solubility. The more it is in honey, the faster it "sits down".
The ratio of glucose to fructose is not a constant value. It depends on weather conditions, types of honey plants, bee breeds and the degree of maturity of the product of their livelihoods. If under the influence of certain natural factors, fructose is increased by plants, then the honey collected this year may not crystallize, remaining liquid for a very long time.
Other sugars contained in this treat also affect crystallization processes.
Melecitose is an anti-crystallizer of glucose. A low content of the mentioned substance (2-3%) can be observed in varieties harvested from rapeseed, colza, sunflower. They sit faster, so it’s quite normal that after 2 months such honey is sugared.
Why do not honeydews crystallize? In them, as in chestnut, linden and white acacia varieties, the percentage of melecitose is higher (6-9%). This substance itself, with a high content, can precipitate in the form of flocculent crystals.
The quality of the product, maturity and its botanical origin can be judged by the nature of crystallization and how quickly the honey is sugared.
Why does filtered honey not harden?
The pollen grains present in the natural product are the centers around which the crystallization process begins. If honey is passed through filters that remove pollen, mucus and protein substances, it does not harden for a long time and has an attractive presentation. Major suppliers to European countries are China and India. The origin of honey can only be traced by pollen, and the ultrafiltered sweet product in some countries is not even allowed to be called honey.
How does real honey behave?
Is the substance that bees make from syrup sugared or not? They
create a product similar in chemical properties to natural flower honey. The processes in it occur in exactly the same way, so it all depends on the integrity of the beekeeper. Knowing the intricacies of product development, you can affect its consistency. Sugaring is easy to speed up by adding the old to the new honey. Adding 1 g of sown honey per 1 kg of liquid and mixing thoroughly, you can get a cage for 1-2 days.
In the cold, sugar is faster. It begins at the boundary of liquid and air; fluid and solid. Some varieties harden from top to bottom, in others the nucleating crystals fall to the bottom, and the process goes from bottom to top.
The process of sugaring does not affect the quality of the product and does not reduce its nutritional value. During the Soviet Union, it was even forbidden to sell liquid honey on collective farm markets after October 1, considering it to be fake and unsuitable for consumption.